Implications for Teacher Practice A Child’s Story Q & A Today’s Agenda The Effects of Trauma Implications for Teacher Practice A Child’s Story Q & A

The Challenge The Impact of Trauma on Brain Development in the Early Years Key principle: The prenatal period through the first three years of life is a critical developmental period that lays either a strong or a fragile foundation for later health, cognitive, and social-emotional development, and behavior Brain Development 101: The bulk of brain development occurs from the prenatal period to the third year of life Brains develop from the bottom up The brain’s capacity to change decreases over time Much of the brain’s development depends on each individual’s experience interacting with their environment

Healthy Development Toxic Stress The Challenge The Impact of Trauma on Brain Development in the Early Years So, what does all of this mean? When children are exposed to attentive, nurturing, and growth-promoting interactions with invested adults, it leads to healthy development of the brain, which includes: thickening the cortex of an infant’s brain; Development of more extensive and sophisticated neuron structures; and Creation of the neurological foundations that support lifelong learning. You can see this on the brain scan on the left. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. As you can see on the brain scan on the right, children who are exposed to fewer colors, less touch, little interaction with adults, fewer sights and sounds, and less language actually have less extensive neural connections. Furthermore, if stress is chronic, long-term, and severe – also known as “toxic stress”, neurons can actually be severed and current understanding of the research is that these cells cannot be restored. Healthy Development Toxic Stress

The Challenge Abuse and neglect Traumatic Experiences in Early Childhood Abuse and neglect Witnessing Violence In & Outside the Home Domestic Neighborhood Separations/ Loss People Places Pose a major threat to a secure attachment relationship, and therefore to healthy cognitive and social-emotional development Witnessing of violence often has a far deeper impact on children than people realize., especially domestic violence. This is because once someone (usually the mother) has been a victim of domestic violence they are not the same person. For the child this means that they’ve lost the mother they know.

Trauma & Behavior Hypervigilance Clinginess Aggression Hyper-activity Tantruming Sleep disturbances Eating disorders Difficulty with Self-Regulation

Organizational Culture Demographics 99.5 % - African American Children, most of whom live below the poverty line. The area used be surrounded by the Robert Taylor homes – one of the largest public housing projects in Chicago – Now all the property is vacant land.. Housing in the area primarily consists of three and four flats that have been converted to section 8 housing. Educare serves families from the immediate area as well as families from Englewood, Kenwood, Hyde Park, and Chatam to name a few. Some of these neighborhoods like Hyde Park are relatively safe, while others like the immediate area around the school and Englewood experience neighborhood violence on a fairly regular basis.

Educare Chicago New Beginnings Johnny – How to create an environment to support a child who was struggling emotionally from the time he was an infant. Wasn’t ready to move to a 3-5 classroom –creation of 3 year classrooms

New Beginnings is an approach and philosophy for instruction that involves always planning lessons/experiences with children’s social/emotional development in mind.

Quality of relationships core to the quality of the child care/educational experiences Learning and healthy development begins with active and meaningful engagement with people and environment

Consistency Predictability Trust Holding Environment Secure Base Creating a Safe Classroom Consistency Predictability Trust Holding Environment Secure Base Self-regulation Emotional Attention Behavior Holding environment – classroom layout, routines and transitions, materials, structures

What We’re Experiencing Deeper interactions Children’s self-regulation Parents’ goodbye rituals Shifting relationships… parents, children, staff Deeper cognitive activities More creativity Members of classroom community More language, earlier

Joseph’s Story

Behavior is communication Lessons Learned Sometimes the teachers are the most consistent people in a child’s life Behavior is communication When you meet the needs of the most vulnerable child in the classroom, everyone benefits School can be a safe haven or it can contribute to the trauma. By not considering the social/emotional needs of children we potentially compromise their capacities to learn and grow.

Discussion Questions?